Smoky Skies Due to Large Georgia Wildfire

GREENSBORO, NC -- Smell that smoke? Believe it or not it's traveling more than 500 miles from a large wildfire in the swamps of Georgia.

The West Mims Fire is burning in the Okefenokee Swamp area, along the Georgia - Florida border. This fire is burning more than 18,000 acres, and started from a lightning strike back on April 6th.

How is it sending smoke all this way? Strong winds out of the southwest developed along a ridge of high pressure across the southeast today, carrying that air from the fire into Central Georgia, then into South Carolina, and here into Central North Carolina.

Many have reported noticing the smoky, hazy skies on this Easter Sunday and detecting a smoky smell from time to time.

It was originally thought that the smoky smell was coming from the Dobson Knob Fire in Western North Carolina, but that fire has largely been contained and is only about 1,700 acres in size. Firefighters have gotten a good handle on that fire, and have started to re-direct their resources to other fires in the southeast.